I was given these gorgeous Designer Solids by FreeSpirit to work with. The colors from left to right, and top to bottom are Tango, Natural, Sky, Gray, Chartreuse, Light Jade, Lemon, and Jade. It was really a fun project to work on because these colors, and in particular these colors together, are not my go-to palette, so it was a bit of a creative challenge to come up with a design that would work with such a wide range of hues.

I decided on a strip pieced quilt with a bold graphic design, and I'll be able to share the pattern with you soon on the Coats & Clark website. I'll also be sharing some tips on how to construct it on my next visit to Quilting Arts TV, which I'm filming in a couple of weeks.

Here's a shot of the quilt in progress. I really love seeing my sketches come to life in fabric. I am always sketching new ideas and patterns in my notebooks, and it's so fun for me to see how my drawings translate when they are finally created with fabric and thread.

And here is the finished top, all sandwiched together and pin-basted with the Pellon Natural Blend batting. The batting is a blend of 80% cotton and 20% polyester and has a really soft hand and smooth texture, and it quilted up beautifully.

I used a variety of Coats & Clark thread, all in coordinating colors to match all of the FreeSpirit solid fabrics. I quilted each color with straight line stitching using my walking foot, pivoting at each corner of each ring in the design.

I don't usually change my thread that often when I quilt; instead, I usually choose one color that coordinates with all of the fabrics I used in the quilt. But I'm really pleased with the look that I achieved by repeating the color of fabric with thread. And you can see how nicely the Natural Blend batting by Pellon quilted up in these photos too.

Gorgeous, right? I had no puckers, no lumps, just smooth, soft batting which was a dream to quilt up. I can't wait to see how it looks after it's been washed too, with all of the great crinkles that come with the little bit of shrinking that happens in the dryer. I chose not to wash the finished quilt yet, since I think it will hang better at Market as it is now.I've got a few other types of batting by Pellon that I will share with you as soon as I have a chance to use them as well. Thank you again, Pellon, for generously giving me so many different types to try!